Doctors
Without Borders Denounces U.S. Food DropsBy Robert
James Parson, Reuters, 10 October 2001

GENEVA (Reuters Health)
- At the same time Sunday that the US announced it had begun bombing Afghanistan,
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld repeatedly stated that along with
bombs the US was dropping food for the innocent whose supplies might be
cut off because of the raids.

Jean-Herve Bradol, president of the
non-governmental organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF, or Doctors
Without Borders), sees it from another angle. For him, the food drops are
a public relations move, and a very bad one at that.

While people within the Bush administration
have been quick to point out that given the gravity of the situation anything
is better than nothing, Bradol disagrees. ``In such circumstances,'' he
told Reuters Health from Islamabad, ``you try to reach the most vulnerable.
This is totally uncoordinated with no preparation, it's expensive, the
most needy won't necessarily get any, much will be wasted, and worse, food
dropped like that in the middle of the night may well end up in minefields.''

In its 2001 annual report, Landmine
Monitor, published last month, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines--of
which Human Rights Watch is a major participant--noted that 724 million
square meters of land in Afghanistan is mine contaminated, making it possibly
the most mined country in the world. Given the great movements of populations
arising from 22 years of war, 3 years of drought and now the bombings,
aid agencies differ on what this means, but a figure often advanced is
that it translates into 27 persons per day becoming landmine victims.

Christiane Berthiaume, spokesperson
for the World Food Programme (WFP), which has been the main food relief
agency in the region and has been planning for its own substantial food
drops, stressed the importance of good advance work for food drops to be
worthwhile. ``They require much planning and days of preparation to arrange
the right circumstances,'' she told Reuters Health.

MSF's Bradol decried so much publicity
for an effort she said was likely to have little effect. ``The US dropped
37,500 daily ration units during each of two nights, with no precise idea
of where they went nor who might collect them, and there are 8 or 10 million
people to feed.''

The greatest danger, however, according
to Bradol, is that the planes dropping the bombs are now dropping food,
which creates the image of humanitarian aid coming from the attackers.
``There is already much anti-Western feeling in that part of the world,''
he told Reuters Health, ``and there's a tendency to lump together all Westerners,
all aid agencies, the UN, etc. We do not want to be perceived as a part
of the US military campaign.''

Other non-governmental organizations
share this view but have been loath to speak out for fear of being sidelined
by the US as its actions more and more dominate the situation. Although
UN agencies such as the WFP and UNICEF have so far been silent, UN officials
have said, off the record, that some sort of common stance on the question
is being worked out. Following the first night of bombings, in Quetta,
Pakistan, near the Afghanistan border, the UNHCR's building was pelted
with stones and UNICEF's was set on fire.